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L E T T E It 



FROM 



HON. HARRY HIBBARD, 



TO 



STEPHEN PINGRY AND OTIIKR CITIZENS OF NEW 

HAMPSHIRE. 



Gentlemen: Your letter of the 5th instant, suggesting to the Demo- 
cratic members from New Hampshire the expediency of returning to 
participate in the canvass, preparatory to the approaching election in "that 
State, " unless our sense of public obligation and official propriety should 
otherwise determine," has been received. Did none but personal con- 
siderations intervene, I should, without hesitation, obey the call. But 
the nature of my duties here is such as to render it improper, in my 
judgment, for me to leave my post for that purpose. 

The business of this session is now fairly in progress. A great amount 
of work is before us — not only that originating with the present session, 
but much of the deferred business of the last Congress. This work ought 
to be done. The interests of our constituents, and of the country, require 
that it receive a prompt and an earnest attention. National questions of 
deep and general importance are often arising for decision. Schemes of 
various kinds, involving heavy expenditures of the public money, are 
daily before us. These importunities for grants from the Treasury are 
constantly increasing in number, and the zeal with which they are pressed 
becomes more urgent and clamorous. 

In acting upon these matters, the vote of even one member may be of 
great and decisive consequence. The numerous calls of our constituents 
respecting affairs less general in their nature, but highly important to 
them, are also to be attended to. In addition to ordinary duties, the 
business of the committee to which I belong has required the personal 
attendance of its members for several hours of almost every day of the 
session. For the present, it is not probable that these demands upon our 
time will be lessened. I feel that they ought not, without urgent cause, 
to be disregarded. Under these circumstances I cannot think it advis- 
able that we should leave the post of duty here for the purpose of enlight- 
ening our constituents in New Hampshire as to the manner in which they 
shall vote at the coming election. If laborers in the cause are wanted, 



2 

w< know well thai you have them among you, able and willing for every 

i work, 
[l ifi manifesl thai the most strenuous efforts are being made by the 

_■ and Abolition allies to overturn the Democratic ascendency b Nevt 
II mpshire, thai they may secure the control of the governmenl and the 
continued misrepresentation of i lie State in the councils of the nation. 
Professing, when deemed expedient, to be actuated by the most opposite 
principli > and purposes, they will now be found where they have here- 

e been, in close and fraternal alliance. Here they arc Whigs of the 

-I of Daniel Webster; pledged supporters of the Administration of 
M . Fillmore, whose official organ announces from day to day, and from 
v.. k to week, thai support of the Compromise constitutes the corner-stone 
of the Executive platform. At home they are sworn allies, part and parcel 
of thai faction which makes slavery agitation the breath of its existence, 
and condemns the Compromise measures as infamous, making their 
repeal its chief rallying cry; a faction, some of whose most virulent 
devou es denounce the Constitution as " a league of blood and a cove- 
nant with Hell," and proclaim that their course is "over the ruins of 
the American Church and the American Union." I cannot believe that 
such a combination of unholy elements will be a second time successful — 
certainly nol within the time of that generation of men who witnessed 
the consummation of their former alliance, and tasted the fruits of their 
former ascendancy. 

In JS4fi, for the first time in a period of over twenty years, the Democ- 
racy i if New J [ampshire were overthrown. This was effected by a union 
of Whiggery and Abolitionism. The results of that coalition were such 
as to satisfy our people then, without a repetition of the experiment. 
Offices, State and National, were bartered and sold like merchandise in 
open market. The State was Hooded with irresponsible corporations, 
in numbers before unprecedented. The salutary power of the Legisla- 
ture to alter, amend, or repeal the charters of corporate bodies, when- 
e\( r in their opinion the public good might require such action, was 
soughl to be abrogated. Extraordinary enactments, aggressive of indi- 
vidual rights, injurious to the public weal, and tending to make all other 
interests subservienl to the corporate and the moneyed power, were im- 
pos< d u j ion the people. Recklessnt ss and extravagance were introduced 
mto the management of the finances. The State was committed, so far 
as the action of the Legislature and of the Executive could com mil it, to 
the wildesl and most pestilent vagaries of higher-law Abolitionism. 

This state of things did no1 long continue. The hand-writing of popular 
condemnation appeared upon the wall ere the distempered rejoicings of 
the allies had died away upon the ear. At the very nexl election the fac- 
tion- which had misgoverned the State at home, and dishonored it abroad, 
were swepi from power. The supremacy of the popular will over cor- 
porate assumption was reestablished. The mischievous enactments* to 
• extent, wei stricken from the statute book. New Hampshire 

;n d the line of her cherished policy, and once more took her stand 
upon the <>ld republican platform, where Aw had so long and so firmly 

I :md prospered. There she has since remained. 

W ) liejiov. d< cend from her proud position, and depart from 



ber tried and cherished policy? Under it she is prosperous al home, and 
respected abroad. The rights of the citizen arc protected; his property 
secure. In no community is justice more equally administered, crime 
more impartially punished, nor industry more surely rewarded. Labor 
is lightly taxed to carry on the operations of her simple and benefice I i 
system of government. She is free from debt and the consequeni embar- 
rassments into which other States pursuing a less provident policy, though 
more favored in climate, in soil, and in position, have been unhappily 
plunged. The cost of her government is less than that of any other State 
of equal population and resources. Churches and Schools of learning are 
scattered all over her valleys and her hills. Her people are enterprising, 
virtuous, and intelligent. The training and the habits acquired at home 
make her adventurous sons respected and successful abroad. Her pres- 
ent noble stand in support of the Union, the Constitution, and the Laws, 
commands the respect and admiration of every true friend of the Union 
and the Constitution throughout the land. The people of New Hamp- 
shire, when called upon to discard their old policy and adopt a new one, 
will be likely to consider the past in connection with the present. They 
will reflect that it is under the almost uninterrupted ascendency of the 
Democratic system that the State has become what it is. They will 
bear in mind that the religious toleration they now enjoy is the fruit of 
one of the triumphs of Democracy over Federalism in days gone by. 
They will remember that it is the Democratic principle which has abol- 
ished that relic of barbarism, imprisonment for debt; which has greatly 
enlarged the amount of personal property secured to the honest debtor 
from legal process — exempted the homestead from attachment, and led 
the way in every useful and beneficent reform. They will remember all 
this, and they will not forget that " with new rulers come new rules." 
They will be in no hurry to abandon the sources of their present pros- 
perity, and fly to evils they know not of — to systems by them untried, 
or which, when tested, have proved disastrous. 

But there are questions involved in this contest other than relate to 
our own internal affairs. I refer to those of a national character. The 
system of policy in the administration of the General Government which 
. our State has so steadily sustained for nearly thirty years, has guided 
the councils of the nation during almost the whole time of its indepen- 
dent existence. It has been the policy of Washington, of Jefferson, of 
Madison, of Monroe, of Jackson, and of Polk. Under the blessing of 
Providence it has made our country all that she is, and, we fondly trust, 
will continue to direct her in her future course of greatness, of glory, and 
of empire. 

That a large majority of our people are still disposed to sustain these 
principles there can be do doubt. But the success of the Whig and 
Abolition allies would be a virtual rejection of them, so far as New 
Hampshire is concerned. It would be a condemnation of the present 
just and salutary tariff, and a substantial endorsement of the exploded 
system of 1842, with all its exactions, and all its enormities. It would 
say to the world that New Hampshire would break up the well-tested 
system of the Constitutional Treasury, the fruit of so many years of con- 
test, in which she bore so honorable a part, and restore the detested 



•i of tlir vampire Bank of the United States. Tr would be a repro- 
bation of the votes of those of hei delegates in Cpngress who have 
opposed the miscalled system of internal improvements — a system which 
would take from \< w Hampshire, in the shape of taxes, an annual 
outlay of at least fifty thousand dollars to execute works in other States, 
from which she could derive no essential benefit. It would ignore the 
doctrine of the accountability of the representative to the will of his con- 
stituents. It would cond. '11111 the principle of a stricl construction of the 
Constitution, of a sacred regard for the reserved rights of the States, and 
sanction the wildesl theories of Hamiltonian federalism. It would 

I the State in tin- corporal's guard of those which sustain the present 
Administration, with al] the imbecilities of its foreign policy, unci all the 
extravagance and profligacy of its domestic management; an Adminis- 
tration, which, in .1 time of profound peace, has expended about jijty 
million* during each of the two lust fiscal years, and demands appn> 
priations tor the coming to an amount of nearly sixty millions of dollars! 
This Administration, if not insolent to the weak, is servile and cowardly 
t<» the strong. It dips the national flag in humble apology to Spain,, 
while it looks w ith indifference upon British aggression and British insult. 
It issues proclamations, under cover of which, in defiance of treaty stip- 
ulations, without form of trial, fifty American citizens, tab n in no tim< 
of battle, without arms in their hands, returning to their own land, are 
shot down in cold blood, by the myrmidons of Spanish tyranny in Cuba. 
For this inhuman slaughter no vengeance i- inflicted, no reparation de- 
manded. 1 low, think von, would such an outrage have been brooked 
by the spirit of the undaunted Jackson? In his administration it never 
would have been perpetrated. To ///'/// every American was an equal 

ler. He felta national wrong as a personal insult. He was prompt 
to maintain his country's rights. Gloriously did he vindicate the coun- 
try's honor! 

It is occasionally said by our opponents that some of their once favor- 
. to w bich I have alluded, are '-obsolete ideas ;" that the pro- 
j. ct8 of u bank and a protective tariff are now abandoned. Let no one 
be d< ceiv< d by such Syren sou lis. These measures are "obsolete" only 
in > leclioneering professions. Practical experience of their mischievous 
tend, ncies, and the successful trial of the opposite policy, have made 
them justly obnoxious. If avowed, they would hang like millstones 
around the necks of aspirants fir political power. Hence it is attempted 
to divert attention from them to false and irrelevant issues. Inn Fed- 
eralism, like the Bourbon Kings, learns nothing, and forgets nothing. 
Be as ured that ii< old are still its cherished idols. It is inseparably 
jou,' tl to them, and if we are wise we shall "let it alone." Place the 
part} of Federalism once more in power, with both Houses of Congress 
at it> command, and again, as in L840, the attempt would be made to 
impose upon the country the whole train of its exploded measures — 
bank, tariff, internal improvements, abolition of the veto power, bank- 
rupt law, and all. This is no random declaration. It is warranted b\ 

»n, and verified by the experience of the past. 
I i \> v. Hampshire is the fust of the series of State elections which 
precede the Presidential contest in November. She Leads oil' in the 



5 

great campaign. This consideration invests the event with additional 
importance. Its progress will be watched with anxious solicitude 
throughout the Union. The success of the Democracy will be hailed by 
our brethren in other States with joy and congratulations. Ii will be 
fruitful of present benefit, and an auspicious omen for the future. Ii 
Will place New Hampshire still firmer in her proud position of THE 
Standard Bearer of the Democracy of the Union. Our defeat, 
while it depresses our friends, would elevate the hopes and inspire the 
energies of our enemies. It would arm them with fresh courage in their 
onset for the continued possession of executive power. It would In- 
greeted with the shouts of Abolition exultation; the roar of Federal 
cannon would herald it through the land. 

The foregoing considerations, as I conceive, indicate the issues really 
involved in this election. They are questions which our opponents dare 
not, and cannot, meet. They have been too often and too disastrously 
routed in former attempts not to be aware of their inability openly to 
maintain them before the people. Hence it is that these issues are 
avoided, and new ones attempted to be raised. For this cause the 
slavery agitation is sought to be revived, and again dragged into the 
arena as an element of political disorganization — a stalking-horse of 
dema^o^uism and falsehood. 

The Compromise measures of the last Congress were adopted as a 
settlement of the dangerous sectional controversy which had so long 
distracted the country. They were supported by the Democratic dele- 
gates in Congress from New Hampshire, and have been approved by 
the Democracy of that State, in common with a vast majority of the 
people of the country. But the forlorn hope of factious agitation must 
have some hook to hang upon. The Compromise measures have been 
selected as the most eligible subjects for that purpose. 

If the expediency of this scheme of adjustment might ever have been 
regarded as doubtful, that question is now settled. It is a past and d< cided 
issue. Most of the provisions of the Compromise are from their nature 
final and irrepealable. They are right in and of themselves. 

California cannot now be legislated out of the Union, of which she is 
a component part. Her State constitution prohibits slavery: 

The people of New Mexico and of Utah cannot be deprived of the 
territorial governments established there. They are both free territoi ies. 

The boundary line of Texas and New Mexico was a question between 
Texas and the United States, whose territory New Mexico was, and is. 
It has been agreed upon and settled by the concurrent action of the only 
parties competent to act upon it, the Government of the United States 
and of Texas. Congress has no power now to disturb it, if it would. In 
my judgment it ought not to disturb it, if it could. It was a controversy 
which involved a doubtful and dangerous question of title. Its contin- 
uance imminently threatened collision and civil war. Had such a conflict 
once began, it might, and probably would, in that excited lime, have 
furnished a nucleus and gathering point for a general sectional encounter, 
which would have deluged the land in fraternal blood. It surely can 
constitute no objection in the minds of Northern men that it relieved a 
large extent of country from the asserted jurisdiction of Texas, a slave- 



6 

holding Stale, and added ii to New Mexico, which is, and always has 
been, a free territory . 

The prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia was 
another i>t" these much vilified and much misunderstood incisures. 
It is to be supposed thai no man, certainly no one opposed to slavery, 
would s< ek to n \ ive thai traffic. 

Ii is equally clear thai the fugitive slave law, another and important link 
in thi- chain of mutual adjustment, cannot now be properly abrogated. 
]t was < uacfc d to carrj oul a plain and explicil provision of the Constitu- 
tion, which is in the following words: "No person held to service or 
•labor in one State, urider the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
'in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from 
• such sen ice or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the person 
'to whom Such sen ice or labor may be due." 

This Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It is the great 
bund of union, by virtue of which these States are one free and happy 
people. To it we all owe allegiance. Its provisions we are bound by 
an oath toobev, and it is the blghduty of every man to obey them with- 
out an oath. The makers of the fugitive slave law meant to frame an 
ad whirl] should fairly give effeel to that clause of the Constitution; 
not one containing provisions which they knew could not be enforced, 
and which would render the law and the Constitution a nullity. It is 
one of the Compromise measures, without all of which none could have 
been adopted. In no one of its provisions is it more stringent than the 
fugitive slave law of 17!>2, which was introduced by a Northern man. 
passed withoul opposition in Congress, approved by Washington, and has 
continued till the present time; for it is not now repealed. That law had 
no trial by jury, and no provisions respecting the writ of habeas corpus, 
(a righl which neither law withholds.) different from the present statute. 
Under this law of L702 most of thepresenl generation of men have been 
bom and lived. Noexcitemenl has been raised aboul it. Many fugitive 
slav< - have been returned to their masters byvirtue of its authority. No 
assumed philanthropist, to my knowledge, has ever warned us of its 
enormity, or anathematized those who were concerned in its enactment* 
Thai law imposed certain duties in the extradition of slaves upon officers 
holding their commissions under State Governments. The Supreme 

Court of the United Slates, some years ago, upon a case raised, decided 

that this feature of the law could nol be constitutionally enforced; that 
it was optional with State officers whether they would act in such cases 
or not. The Legislatures of many of the Northern States thereupon 
refused the use of their jails, and forbade State officers, under heavy 
]n ij.ilii' 9, from acting in the delivering up of slaves. Hence arose the 
necessity for the acl of 1848, which imposed these duties upon the offi- 
of the United States, instead of the States. This is the main and 
ntial difference I" tw< en the two enactments. 

The Compromise measures are now the laws of the land. Between 
one and two years they have been before the people of the country. 
They have been scrutinized and made the subjeel of discussion every- 
where, in evi i v - 1 1 . i j i < and form. At the North ihey have been assailed 

i oncedine too much to the South. At the South they are denounced 



as yielding too much to the North. The good sense of the great mass 
of the people of both sections has repudiated each of these denuncia- 
tions. To say that these laws are perfect, would be assuming a quality 
belonging to no ordinances of man, and which pertains to the decrees 
of the Great Lawgiver alone. Like other settlements of mutual claims 
and mutual differences, they have entirely satisfied neither of the 
contending parties. This was to have been expected, and is a proof of 
their substantial justice. But that they were, in the main, and as a 
whole, wise and expedient to have been adopted, I do not doubl and 
have never doubted. That they inflict no substantial wrong or dishonor 
upon any State or section of the country, I am equally convinced. Their 
practical results are such that it seems to me Northern men are the lasl 
of all who should be dissatisfied. They were agreed upon and carried 
through by a union of men honestly seeking the good of an imperiled 
country. If these men erred, it was in judgment, and not in intention. 
What motive had they to commit wrong or be treacherous to their trusts 
in such an emergency? But they did not err. Had this adjustment not 
been made, it is more than probable that our beloved land would have 
become a scene of confusion, of conflict, and of carnage, whose horrors 
no tongue can tell, whose future no eye would wish to penetrate. 

Upon these measures the verdict of the people has already been pro- 
nounced. It has come up from the North, from the South, from the East) 
and from the West. It is a verdict of most strong and overwhelming 
approval. The country is sick of this causeless and dangerous strife of 
sections. It has declared that it is satisfied with these measures of adjust- 
ment, and that they shall stand. The leaders of Abolitionism know well 
that attempts to disturb them will be of no avail. Nearly three months 
of the present session have elapsed, while no movement for that purpose 
has been made. That reckless spirit of disorganization which, in its 
blind fury, like Sampson of old, would pull down the tempi e#of our con- 
stitutional liberties, crushing all in its ruins, has been rebuked. It is to 
be seen whether it is to be resuscitated in New Hampshire — to rule the 
councils and utter the voice of the Gibraltar of the Democracy of the 
North. 

It is time that this accursed agitation should cease. Futile for good, 
it has been potent only for evil, and that continually. It has been 
fruitful of strife, heart-burnings, and peril; but it has liberated no slave. 
It has made his yoke heavier, and his chain tighter. It has set brother 
against brother, State against State, and section against section. At the 
North it has sown animosity towards the South ; at the South it has stirred 
up enmities against the North. It has estranged those whom God and 
nature designed for friends; whose interests are promoted as their inter- 
course is increased — their relations more intimate, their interchange of 
products and friendly offices more frequent. By interfering where it has 
no right, and attempting to dragoon and to coerce where it should seek 
to conciliate and persuade, it has exasperated the master, while it has 
discontented without benefiting the slave. It has induced the necessity 
for more rigorous laws and stricter discipline. It has wedded the South- 
ern mind to a system it might otherwise have been disposed in time to 
abandon, and rolled back the car of emancipation for half a century. 



8 

\\ ild an eternal warfare be kepi up between the two great sec- 

ii< mi- ■ »{' : I ' Their domestic institutions are matters which 

pertain to each State alone ; w iili w hich no other State Has any right to 

interfere. Their interests are nol inimical, as is often falsely asserted ; 

1 in id< ntical and mutually dependenl on each other. They are brethren 

of the same lii • I ind, and Language. They have one common origin, 

.•Mid mus< li.i' ommon destiny. Side by side they fought the bat- 

i ' volution. Together they beat back the proud tideof British 

second war of Independence. They joined to add n 

lustre to l n's annals in the late war with Mexico. Together they 

mi up i<> greatness and < mpire. They are bound to each oth< r 

\>\ the glorious recollections of the pasl ; they must share in the common 

if the untried future, Their fate depends on no external hu 

pov 11 themselves alone. Invasion by all the Powers of Europe 

ined cannot crush them. Bui insane divisions, ending in discord 

mid civil war, may shatter them to fragments, and send down the story 

■ deracy, like thai of the Republics of olden time; a beacon- 

lighl and a warning to all coming ages. United they stand; divided 

! il! v FALL. 

The agriculture of the South and the manufactures and shipping of the 
N ' : :, arc lii" natural allies and sustatners of each other. Realize the 
mad dreams of s !ctional enthusiasts ; abolish free com mere*' between the 
n and Southern States; close ths markets of the South to North- 
ern manufactures; diverl Southern staples from their preseril channels, 
ried in foreign bottoms to foreign markets, and grass would grow 
in t : ts of our populous cities; blighl and destruction would fall 

where now is wide-spread and daily-increasing prosperity. 

'i pernicious eftect of this intermeddhng spirit upon the commercial 

an tile interests of the North, has already been sensibly felt. It 

i Imt a ' of the ruin which would follow, should free 

iven to such frenzied machinations* May God avert these 

and all other evils from our beloved country! 

I v*e the honor to be, gentlemen, with much respect, your friend and 

vant, 

IIAK'KY HIBBARD. 

To M< • si — 

S I EPHBN PlNGRY, N. ( >SGOOD, 

I >. C. G EIN, .' \ u ES ( lOFRt \. 

Cyrus t Iookin, ( Jeorge B. Bi i;.\s, 

Wm. Huntoon, ( !aleb Merrill, 

N \'i h'l Bean, Jas. W. Clemen r. 

James Felloe . WM. W. Moi [.ton. 

Washini . /'• bruary L4, 1 B52. 






















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